Earlier this year my friend Anna asked me to sit for a painting, part of a series of paintings that she calls “Seelenbilder” (soul images).

So this is not really so much about a physical resemblance but rather about externalising what she sees going on inside those people she paints.

I told her I was going to post the result on my blog, yet I’ve been hesitating to do this for months.

Here is what I like/don’t like about it:

If you don’t know me you might think I’m chubby, wrinkled/old and grumpy. Yet in real life people tend to think I’m much younger than my physical age (which is 40) and for some reason I never had a weight problem, I simply often like to wear a comfortable sweatshirt.

However I know I’m often sort of lost in deep thoughts and my facial expressions are often misinterpreted as being grumpy when I’m really in a good mood but just thinking intensely about something. And this seems to be the kind of moment that Anna choose to paint/externalise. That I like about the painting, that inner state of mind is probably quite truthful.

Still I am a bit shocked about what this seems to make me look like when externalised – flattering it is not.

Yet I believe it is part of an artist’s job to be honest and if this is what my friend Anna sees in me I have to accept it and should post it, even though it might give a wrong impression to some.

Like this:

“Can you imagine your internet service provider policing everything you do online? Can you imagine generic drugs that could save lives being banned? Can you imagine seeds that could feed 1000′s being controlled and withheld in the name of patents? This will become reality with ACTA!!!

ACTA is the “Anti-Counterfeiting Trading Agreement”. Disguised as a Trade Agreement, ACTA goes much, much further than that.

For the past three years, ACTA has been negotiated in secret by 39 countries. But the negotiators are not democratically elected representatives. They don’t represent us, but they’re deciding laws behind our backs.

Bypassing democratic process, they impose new criminal sanctions to stop online file sharing. ACTA aims to make Internet Service & Access Providers legally responsible for what their users do online, turning them into private copyright police and judge, censoring their networks. The chilling effects on Free speech would be terrible.

In the name of patents, ACTA would give large corporations the power to stop generic drugs before they reach the people who need them and stop the use of certain seeds for crops.

The European Parliament will soon vote on ACTA. This VOTE will be the occasion to say NO, once and for all, to this dangerous treaty. As citizens, we must URGE our representatives to reject ACTA!!!